NFS Most Wanted

[InfiniteStates]

Who cares what's on the box...? If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and walks like a duck then it is a duck. And NFS Most Wanted looks incredibly like the spiritual successor to Burnout Paradise, which in my opinion, is the best racing game yet made. Especially as EA has just given Criterion pretty much full ownership of both franchises.

A lot of people couldn't cope with the open city of Paradise City, preferring instead to be confined to closed tracks. But I thought it just separated the men from the boys. And when you learned enough little chunks to piece together routes it was a great sense of achievement.

So anyone else interested in NFS: Most Wanted (aka Paradise City 2)? I know when it came out on PS+ I think we had one go, which devolved into hilarious but short lived van trolling... But this game is ultimately about racing. And it's fucking good at it (if you are)...

[InfiniteStates]

Criterion doesn’t make sequels to other people’s games. They’re quite emphatic about that. Hot Pursuit wasn’t a follow-up to any other Need for Speed, but rather Criterion’s personal take on the theme. Need for Speed: Most Wanted shares its name with another game in this genre-spanning racing brand, but the interpretation is all Criterion’s own. It does feel a bit like a sequel, though, in some ways – not to any of EA’s previous NFS games, but to the developer’s 2008 open-world racer Burnout Paradise.

Most Wanted is an open-world racer too, setting the player down in a shiny, good-looking American-style city with luxuriously wide roads, extremely car-friendly urban architecture and absolutely no cyclicsts to get in the way. You can leap over the freeway, drive up stairs, drift crazily around the end of a pier, antagonise the police and (naturally) take part in street races of every imaginable variety. And here’s the best part: every car in the game is open from the start, hidden somewhere in the city. All you have to do is get out there and find them.



No more staring longingly at greyed-out shiny Ferraris in unlock menus. No more accumulating XP or cash or whatever other arbitrary value for 10 or 30 or 35 hours before you’re allowed to drive the cars that everybody actually wants to drive. There’s just you, the cops, and a secret-packed urban playground designed for absurd driving. And, via an updated and improved version of Autolog, the constant presence of all your friends.

Like Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted is a social racing game, making every tiny challenge into a social leaderboard. Autolog is everywhere, populating the city of Fairhaven with competitive gameplay and turning every speed camera and visible billboard into a competition. Fly through the air for the longest time after smashing through a billboard, and your face will appear on it, adorning that same billboard in your friends’ game until one of them beats your record. The game’s hook, really, is the desire to become the most notorious driver amongst your own group of players.

The city of Fairhaven is full of distractions and incentives, security-gated alleyways and secreted cars and underground shortcuts, all designed to make you want to explore its 100-odd miles of road. Open-world racers can often feel directionless, leaving you to tool around in a city without giving you all that much to actually do – Burnout Paradise suffered from this problem – but here Autolog provides you with a constantly-updated list of new score challenges and people to beat, in addition to the races and events that Criterion constructs for you.

“The city has to be inviting and it has to be interesting, and at any point in the game you’re parked up and going zero miles an hour, there should be something interesting to look at,” says creative director Craig Sullivan, whom you might recognise from Most Wanted’s E3 appearance. “A jump in the distance, a ledge you think you can drive onto, a billboard somewhere high up that makes you think ‘How do I get up there?’, or an interesting drift corner, or some back allyways that have security gates up and make you think, if I smash through them what’s down that alleyway? Is it a car? Is it a hidden route that lets me go faster during a race?”

When Need For Speed: Most Wanted’s emergent gameplay isn’t throwing up anything that grabs your interest, the Easy Drive menu is where the single-player races and challenges are hiding. Lifted straight from Burnout Paradise, it’s a real-time d-pad operated menu that you can use to switch between different cars, find events and tinker with your car’s mods without leaving the driving seat (although it’s a bit difficult to read and operate a menu at the same time as driving at 100mph down a freeway without smashing into other traffic). You can jump around the map straight to specific races from the menu, so you don’t have to drive around looking for events unless you want to. There are bespoke races and challenges for each individual car, and completing them unlocks mods (nitrous, different tyres that make life easier in off-road races, all sorts), giving you an incentive to stick with each car for a while rather than switching between them every five minutes.

This being Criterion, of course, the cars aren’t treated with po-faced reverence. They’re there to be crashed, shunted and generally abused. “These are the best-looking cars Need for Speed has ever had. That’s just a fact,” says producer Matt Webster. “But it’s in our nature to take something beautiful and want to smash it up.” This is best exemplified by Most Wanted’s totally chaotic multiplayer, which drops you and a big group of other racers into the city and just throws races at you, sending you careening all over the map to meet-up points.



Before the races even start, there’s a melee at these meet-ups, with everyone ramming into everyone else and screeching around the vicinity. A familiar slow-motion takedown cam rewards you for nudging opponents into pillars or oncoming traffic. Most of the time you don’t even know when the race is going to start, or what direction you should be facing in when it does, resulting in absolute carnage when the 3,2,1 countdown appears on the screen. So far we’ve played drift and jump distance challenges as well as straight races, the latter of which resulted in an awesome mid-air crash.

If Forza is car-worship, Burnout is crashing and Hot Pursuit is cops and robbers, Most Wanted is chaos. It’s about doing the most outrageous things possible in a city designed for vehicular mayhem, motivated by social competition as much as the game’s own challenges. It feels like open-world Burnout that Paradise could have been, with extra structure and motivation provided by Autolog and a smarter, more fluid and intuitive single-player system. Play that uproarious multiplayer for more than five minutes, and you can’t wait to see more. Most Wanted takes many of Criterion’s best ideas and runs with them, and if it works it will play like a career best-of.

[chrisdfa1]

I am interested mate as i loved paradise and most wanted on ps2 back in the day.

Whether i purchase it day one is a different matter :/ depends on what the release date is and spare cash/time.

[Symonator]

Sounds like a game i can play, free roam u say? just drive round n shit like midnight club n paradise city?

[InfiniteStates]

Yeah, it's basically Paradise City 2, but just a different franchise.

Criterion rule IMO - I own every single version of Burnout, from PS2 through PSP to PS3. Day one purchase for me.

[InfiniteStates]

No one interested in the game that could reunite the Mess Hall for online lols? I been so busy with XCOM I didn't even notice it came out lol

Ordering now...

The embargo has now been lifted like opening the curtains in a dark room then the sun outside blinding you, here is a mini round up, feel free to add add and add any I haven't added.



Joystiq: 4/5 - Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the next Burnout game fans have clamoring for - it may not say so on the box, but everything about it screams Burnout. The feel of the cars, the physics and the eclectic mix of multiplayer modes are all undeniably Criterion qualities, the things old fans love and the properties that convert new fans with every studio release. If you enjoy Criterion's work, or arcade racing in general, head on down to Fairhaven. Just keep an eye on the rear-view.

Destructoid: 8.5/10 - Fans of Criterion's previous games were clear in what they wanted, and in turn, Criterion themselves were clear in what they were making. There are some scrapes with single-player and a lack of polish here and there, but the multiplayer delivers in such a big way that all of this hardly matters. Need for Speed Most Wanted is that big, crazy, crash-y open-world racer you've been asking for.

Polygon: 8.5/10 - Need for Speed Most Wanted is marred somewhat by a fussy, restrictive and self-defeating interface. But it's one of the best racing games of 2012 regardless. And if Criterion's track record of post-release support with Burnout Paradise is any indication, it will only improve over time. Criterion has proven itself as a steward of one of gaming's oldest and most beloved brands, and also as creative game makers in their own right.

Eurogamer: 8/10 - Its sense of character may be not be as forceful as Criterion's other games - but the sense of competition that informs it, the joy of discovery and the plain pleasure of driving haven't been dimmed in the slightest. This isn't quite paradise, but it comes very close.

OXM UK: 8/10 - Most Wanted is thus a compelling argument not just for Criterion's continued stewardship of Need for Speed - assuming Hot Pursuit left you in any doubt on that front - but for the reproduction of those inescapable, irresistible online features across rival genres.

ShopTo: No score - If you're a racing fan or petrol head of any sort then Criterion's Need for Speed really should be on your Most Wanted list. It's an incredible, feature packed game which will keep you busy until the next game in the series and beyond. Get this in your console, start your engines and prepare for another taste of paradise, albeit a slightly different one.

^^ Above copied from CVG



Below by me:



IGN: 9/10 - As with all sandbox games the narrative is of your own making but this is even more true of Most Wanted. The side-effect is that it can feel aimless at times. If you desire structure, if you wanted a game to be meted out to you, you might find its instant freedom somewhat overwhelming. But Most Wanted is all about deviation and deviance. It’s the racing game for people who don’t tend to like racing games. You’re not punished for missing that apex or abandoning that nagging racing line. It’s undoubtedly one of the year’s most exhilarating experiences.



Nowgamer 9.5/10 - Burnout Paradise 2.0 is a lazy reference, but we’re going use it anyway. In fact, we probably should’ve started this review with that and avoided the 800 words of filler. Still, Need For Speed: Most Wanted is easily the best arcade racer this generation.



CVG 7.5/10 - Pros:

Multiplayer is manic fun
Fairhaven looks incredible
Cars balance arcade and sim handling

Cons:

There's just not enough room to race
Having to drive miles to events
Lack of crash camera

Some more for you:



Edge – 9/10
Game Informer – 9/10
OPM - 8/10
Digital Spy – 4/5
God Is A Geek - 10/10
GameRevolution – “B+”
Giant Bomb – 4/5
VentureBeat – 85/100
Giga.de – 65/100

[YorkshirePud]

Van trolling ahhhh i remember that on Burnout Paradise

[DJ-Daz]

at £60 I don't think I'll be bothering.

[theENIGMATRON]

£60????

I can only see it for £30 - £35

[redVENGEANCE]

i bought this at the weekend from tesco. you will all be disappointed. its not burnout paradise thats for sure. that was fun. the map is much smaller. haven't really tried mp yet. i don't like the fact you just come across the vehicles as you drive around and unlock that way. a bit meh. its alright but ill be getting bored soon.

[YorkshirePud]

at £60 I don't think I'll be bothering.

DAFUQ?

[chrisdfa1]

Won my copy the other day at currys/pc world.

Game is decent imo, but it lacks variety of courses as the map is quite small plus i dislike the fact you 'find' cars and dont unlock them all as progression.

Already finished the main top 10 most wanted cars as i have no internet until the 19th as i just moved house

Graphics are decent but i dont think its worth the 40quid price tag....maybe 25 when it inevitably drops.

[InfiniteStates]

The cops piss me off no end... I always out run them on the motorway then drive into another before I can change direction. I also find the so-called "easy" races for the cars not actually that easy.

[DJ-Daz]

The cops piss me off no end... I always out run them on the motorway then drive into another before I can change direction. I also find the so-called "easy" races for the cars not actually that easy.

If you struggle on easy, what chance for us mere mortals?

[InfiniteStates]

I think I'm doing it wrong to be honest... The majority of the internet seem to be lapping this game up.